Tag Archives: nclex review

Hello everyone today we will be talking about Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)

An Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) what occurs is that there is fluid that builds up in the tiny, elastic air sacs called (alveoli) in your lungs.

And what occurs is that the fluid keeps your lungs from filling with enough air, which means less oxygen reaches your bloodstream.

And in turn this deprives your organs of the oxygen they need to function.

Now understand that ARDS typically occurs in people who are already critically ill or who have significant injuries.

Now lets look at a few of the symptoms

NCLEX Review Notes on ARDS

Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of ARDS can vary in intensity and basically depending on the cause and severity:

So the patient would be hypoxic and would show signs of
Severe shortness of breath
Labored and rapid breathing
and there would be
– Presence of crackles or (rhonci)
when we assess the patient

The patient would also have a Low blood pressure
and also be somewhat lethargic and confused

Lets look at a few of the Complications with ARDS

If you have ARDS, you can develop other medical problems while in the hospital. The most common problems are:

Blood clots. This is very dangerous because it can cause a (pulmonary embolism).
Collapsed lung (pneumothorax). there fore In most ARDS cases, a ventilator is used to increase oxygenation.
Infections. Because the ventilator is attached directly to a tube inserted in your windpipe, this makes it much easier for germs to infect and further injure your lungs.

Diagnosis
There’s no specific test to identify ARDS. The diagnosis is based on the physical exam, chest X-ray and oxygen levels.

– Diagnosed through the X- Ray (Ground Glass) Appearance within the lungs and this is due to the fluid buildup.

– A noncardiogenic Pulmonary Edema.
excess fluid in the lungs

Lab tests

The lab test will also show a decrease in the oxygen level throughout the body.

Treatment

The first goal in treating ARDS is to improve the levels of oxygen in your blood. Without oxygen, your organs can’t function properly.

NCLEX Review

Oxygen

So there are various ways that we can give supplemental oxygen
and that includes Mechanical ventilation.
The mechanical ventilator pushes air into your lungs and forces some of the fluid out of the air sacs.

The common Mechanical Ventillation includes PEEP or positive end-expiratory pressure.
basically its A method of ventilation in which airway pressure is maintained above atmospheric pressure

Another method is the CPAP or Continuous positive airway pressure
Now with CPAP, it basically applies mild air pressure on a continuous basis to keep the airways continuously open.

Side Effects of MAOI

NCLEX Review: Remember to limit foods that contain high levels of tyramine, such as cheese, pickled foods, beer and wine

MAOIs or Monoamine oxidase inhibitors act by inhibiting the activity of monoamine oxidase, thus preventing the breakdown of monoamine neurotransmitters and thereby increasing their availability. Which gives off positive effects on depression and anxiety. so again basically MAOI’s helps balance certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters and it does this by reducing the amount of monoamine oxidase which the substance that breaks down the neurotransmitters, hence there would be more neurotransmitter in the brain which helps decrease the symptoms of depression.

Now the 2 important MAOI’s drugs that you might encounter in your NCLEX exam includes:

Parnate (tranylcypromine sulfate)

Nardil (phenelzine sulfate)

As we learn from our Psych class back in nursing school, We as nurses don’t usually offer MAOI because of the lethal dietary and drug interactions (and this is the most important thing that we have to know for the NCLEX in reagards with MAOI and this is also a big reason why MAOI is usually used as last line of treatment and is used only when other classes of antidepressant drugs (for example SSRI and TCA’s) have failed.

NCLEX Review Neurological Pharmacology

We need to know for the NCLEX that our patient needs to limit foods that contain high levels of tyramine, such as cheese, pickled foods, beer and wine. And here is why…. well because Tyramine is an amino acid that helps regulate blood pressure. So basically if we combine tyramine with MAOIs the interaction cause dangerously severe high blood pressure it can trigger a hypertensive crisis… and we don’t want that on our patient.

So again, the biggest tip we can take away from this video is to remember that when giving MAOI’s… avoid food with high levels of tyramine…. so no cheese, pickles and beer or wine.

Understand that the Nervous system includes the Central Nervous System (CNS), the Peripheral Nervous Sytem (PNS) and the Autonomic Nervous System or the (ANS).

When I say the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, We can simplify at as the BRAIN and the SPINAL CORD.

The PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM on the other hand, contains the CRANIAL NERVES and the SPINAL NERVES.

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYTEM, WE ARE BASICALLY TALKING ABOUT THE “SYMPATHETIC” (FIGHT OR FLIGHT) SYSTEM OR THE “PARASYMPATHETIC” SYSTEM.

.THE BASIC COMPONENT OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IS THE NERVE CELL OR NEURON

NEURON

– is the primary component of the nervous system.

– it is composed of cell body (gray matter), axon and dendrites.

BRAIN (Central Nervous System: Brain and Spinal Cord).

CEREBRUM- Outermost area (cerebral cortex) is gray matter, deeper area is composed of white matter

TWO HEMISPHERES: LEFT AND RIGHT AND EACH HEMISPHERE IS DIVIDED INTO TWO LOBES.

FRONTAL LOBE

PERSONALITY, BEHAVIOR

HIGHER INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING

BROCA’S AREA: (MOTOR SPEECH AREA)

PARIETAL LOBE

POSTCENTRAL GYRUS: REGISTERS SENSATION (TOUCH, PRESSURE)

INTEGRATES SENSORY INFORMATION

TEMPORAL LOBE

HEARING, TASTE, SMELL (HINT: LOCATION OF EARS – CLOSE THE TEMPLES)

WERNICKE’S AREA: SENSORY SPEECH AREA

(UNDERSTANDING, FORMATION OF LANGUAGE)

OCCIPITAL LOBE

VISION

Peripheral Nervous System- composed of Spinal Nerves (31)

Autonomic Nervous System- part of the Peripheral Nervous System

REGULATES FUNCTIONS OCCURRING AUTOMATICALLY IN THE BODY.

ANS REGULATES SMOOTH MUSCLE, CARDIAC MUSCLE AND GLANDS.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO KNOW EVERY PHYSIOLOGY FOR EVERY SINGLE PART OF THE BRAIN. BUT JUST IN CASE WE END UP GETTING LOW LEVEL QUESTIONS ON THE EXAM, THEN IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE UNDERSTAND THE BASIC CONCEPT AND FUNCTION OF EACH AREA. IT WOULD ALSO BE A GREAT IDEA TO KNOW THE CRANIAL NERVES.

Quick NCLEX Overview:

EYE AND EAR DISORDERS

GLAUCOMA

Glaucoma: there is an increased of intraocular pressure in the eye.

There are two types:

OPEN ANGLE GLAUCOMA OR “PRIMARY” GLAUCOMA

PRIMARY ANGLE GLAUCOMA.

Open angle glaucoma is slow in onset and chronic, while the primary angle glaucoma needs immediate treatment.

Open Angle Glaucoma

Bilateral

Acute Angle-closure Glaucoma

Unilateral

TREATMENT

Beta Adrenergic Blockers

Cholinergic Agents (Pilocarpine) ♣(Make sure to know this for the NCLEX)

Understand that the Nervous system includes the Central Nervous System (CNS), the Peripheral Nervous Sytem (PNS) and the Autonomic Nervous System or the (ANS).

When I say the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, We can simplify at as the BRAIN and the SPINAL CORD.

The PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM on the other hand, contains the Cranial NERVES and the SPINAL NERVES.

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, WE ARE BASICALLY TALKING ABOUT THE “SYMPATHETIC” (FIGHT OR FLIGHT) SYSTEM OR THE “PARASYMPATHETIC” SYSTEM.

.THE BASIC COMPONENT OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IS THE NERVE CELL OR NEURON

NEURON

– is the primary component of the nervous system.

– it is composed of cell body (gray matter), axon and dendrites.

BRAIN (Central Nervous System: Brain and Spinal Cord).

CEREBRUM- Outermost area (cerebral cortex) is gray matter, deeper area is composed of white matter

TWO HEMISPHERES: LEFT AND RIGHT AND EACH HEMISPHERE IS DIVIDED INTO TWO LOBES.

FRONTAL LOBE

PERSONALITY, BEHAVIOR

HIGHER INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING

BROCA’S AREA: (MOTOR SPEECH AREA)

PARIETAL LOBE

POSTCENTRAL GYRUS: REGISTERS SENSATION (TOUCH, PRESSURE)

INTEGRATES SENSORY INFORMATION

TEMPORAL LOBE

HEARING, TASTE, SMELL (hint: location of ears – close the temples)

WERNICKE’S AREA: SENSORY SPEECH AREA

(UNDERSTANDING, FORMATION OF LANGUAGE)

OCCIPITAL LOBE

VISION

Peripheral Nervous System- composed of Spinal Nerves (31)

Autonomic Nervous System- part of the Peripheral Nervous System

REGULATES FUNCTIONS OCCURRING AUTOMATICALLY IN THE BODY.

ANS REGULATES SMOOTH MUSCLE, CARDIAC MUSCLE AND GLANDS.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO KNOW EVERY PHYSIOLOGY FOR EVERY SINGLE PART OF THE BRAIN. BUT JUST IN CASE WE GO END UP GETTING LOW LEVEL QUESTIONS ON THE EXAM, THEN IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE UNDERSTAND THE BASIC CONCEPT AND FUNCTION OF EACH AREA. IT WOULD ALSO BE A GREAT IDEA TO KNOW THE CRANIAL NERVES.

How to Pass the NCLEX Exam

Show Notes:

Now I have been getting plenty of questions lately and most of these questions pertains obviously mostly on how to pass the NCLEX Exam. So, what I did was I did some research outside of the actual “Nclex review content” scenario and took a step back and really look at the reasons why some people passed there NCEX Exam, the first time they take it. Its quite obvious that the answer for that would be that the ones that pass on the first time really did studied hard invested plenty of time, energy and effort into the to the review while others, well… Let me ask you this, have you noticed how some people are just really good in taking exams?. There are usually those people in our lives that just really good at taking exams. On the outside it doesn’t seem like they’re really are studying that hard or investing that much time (which can be true) or we might not really know how much they’ve studied or how much time they invested yet at the end of the day they still pass their exam on the first try…

Sometimes it boggles our minds and we can even get quite jealous. Now I think for the most part these people really did invest plenty of the time and energy and resources in passing this exam (which I personally did, and it paid off ) but I also believe that these people do have a good amount of test taking skills because for me personally I really did invest plenty of time, effort, energy and sacrifice in order to pass the NCLEX Exam the first time I took it about three years ago. Anyhow, I also believe that these people unconsciously were able to adapt to a certain strategic approach on learning that worked on their own specific learning styles.

I did my own research on most of these test takers and found out that these people are more analytic in their review methods than I thought.

And this is what I have learned:

You need to learn a deeper level way of studying that is complimentary to our learning style. When we just try to memorize words it’s what researchers have called the, “shallow level of processing,” basically you are just looking at the words and trying to memorize them without making any connections or understanding (in depth) by looking and analyzing the bigger picture. Instead, we need a more “deep level processing” way of reviewing the NCLEX. This can be accomplished by trying to connect it with our own experience and also understanding more in depth the NCLEX Review Contents.

What can really enhance the deeper level processing way of reviewing for the NCLEX Exam is by allowing your brain to match your learning style whether you are an (auditory learner, visual learner or a tactile learner). So this includes looking at NCLEX Review Videos (HERE IS THE LINK), maybe even playing an AUDIO NCLEX Review CD in your car while driving (HERE IS THE LINK) or just trying to connect, what you are learning with your everyday experience.

Attention and Interest is an important subject when studying for the NCLEX. Sometimes, reviewing for the NCLEX exam can just become too tedious and boring. There are plenty of times when we are reading unconsciously just word after word without actually retaining and understanding the content (which is counter productive).

Therefore, there is no reason for our NCLEX Review not to be fun and interesting (while learning at the same time). We need to look at other ways such as media (audio and video) and websites to enhance our NCLEX Review.